Finally got my seat finished. The stock seat was OK but I wanted to feel like I was sitting "IN" the seat instead of on top. I don't know how, but it took me 5 years to finally change it. I never had a seat customized. I guess I thought it would be difficult and so I put it off. Difficult doesn't begin to describe it.
I didn't know of any shops nearby. No one was recommended to me. I visited lots of websites. I read about several members here and other places buying Corbin's, Sargent's, etc. Lots of people buying more than one seat and/or having their seat modified, just to read later they were still trying to find the right seat. I was hoping to get it right the first try.
I looked at Corbin. Great looks, but others pointed out how their "Canyon" seat forces you to sit too far back. Ron Ayers seats looked over-padded and typically too much stitch work. I wanted to keep my cowl so that tossed out Sargent's "World Sport" seat. I looked at others but finally decided to try having Sargent's customize my stock seat. Funny thing, as you'll read later, I was impressed with Sargent's because I wanted more than some foam re-shaped and a cover. I wanted their special foam they call "Super-cell" foam. The stock 14 seat isn't that thick, so I was worried lowering it a little would compromise comfort. Most websites didn't mention foam much; just their cover work or gel-pads which I didn't want. I wanted my seat lowered about 1/2" and I put a lot of faith into having their Super-cell foam installed. Here's what I had to do to get my seat right.
I'm posting this long story because I want to share my experience working with Sargent's. Hank, another member here, had a similar experience. He helped me along the way. I just want to say the truth about what it's like working with them. Others may have had different results. I cannot speak about there mass produced seats; just their customizing work. After all, it's "the cornerstone of their business" as they say on their website. Right.
In late November, I talked to Bob Livingston. I told him what I wanted done to the seat. He said no problem. I sent detailed drawings, pictures, and instructions. We agreed on a simple 1/2" lowering and slight narrowing/with super-cell foam, and a new vinyl cover with basic stitching. About $225. I got an invoice saying to confirm the work. "Widening and Dishing" was added for $175. I replied a day later that I didn't understand why he was widening and dishing the seat. He said it was necessary. One more day went by because of the time difference and I don't hang by my computer waiting for e-mails. I was to CONFIRM first, then the work would be done. I was about to send an e-mail before leaving for work, when I noticed a new e-mail from Bob saying "the seat was done"! Everything really went to hell from there.
I asked for a picture of the seat before sending it. He sent one pic from a phone. The shape was wrong and the stitching wrong. I told him it was unacceptable. We agreed it would be slimmed down, the stitching changed in ONE area, and I'd see a new pic before putting on another cover. He sent one pic again, but the cover was installed. This time there was NO STITCHING at all and the sides still bulged from his W&D work. Jeez! I said again that it was unacceptable. Again I asked for a new pic when the seat is done right. He never sent a pic. I called him again. He said the seat is finished and he couldn't get a camera. He assured me it was done right. I was frustrated. My seat was gone 3 weeks already. I said to ship it.
It arrived and was not re-shaped as I asked. It was not only not lowered, it was actually a little higher. I rode the bike and the sides rubbed my legs when at a stop. Everything about the seat was wrong except the cover material. I complained and Bob said to send it back. I said I had no faith he could make the seat right. I asked Bob for a partial discount of $100. He said "no" and said he was sorry I wouldn't send the seat back. So I let a couple days go by to think about a plan B to get my seat done somewhere else.
I decided to call and speak to Sargent's management about a discount. I talked to the General Manager, Richard Young. He's the exact opposite of Bob Livingston. He talked to me nearly 1 hour and asked several times for me to send the seat back. No charge for the re-work and free shipping both ways. I said I'd try once more. Hank joined in and told me he had similar problems. I sent the seat, this time with a DVD describing what to do. Richard worked with me all the way. But one thing that was unexpected during this time was I asked to see the foamwork before covering the seat. He sent a couple pics. I couldn't believe it; NO SUPER-CELL foam! I was billed for it weeks ago. It was part of several discussions with Bob. That guy actually cheated me. No way he made a mistake. I asked Richard where was my SC foam? You could tell he was embarrassed and seemed to try to cover things up. This guy had been cool with me and I let it go after he said it would be installed. I asked again for a pic after they re-shaped the SC foam. Can you believe they sent a pic but with the cover already on! The seat looked good, but I really don't know if the SC foam was installed. Richard said it was. I had the day off the morning the seat was done and about 4 e-mails were involved. He said timing contributed to him covering the seat before taking a pic for me. So I don't know.
The seat arrived on February,7th. It took 2 months and a week. One guy misquoted me; didn't listen; let the seat sit several days before I called about the progress; over-charged me; added work we never discussed, let alone approved; then ended up being a liar and cheated me. The other guy did his best to put the customer first, though I still wonder if I have the foam that made me decide on Sargent's in the first place. So you have both extremes here.
Sorry for the long story, but I felt it needed to be said. Believe me, I left out some details that would make the whole thing all the more unbelievable. Here's a few pic's. I gave up on the stitching. One more thing for them to get wrong. I always liked one-piece seats anyway. It turned out well. Comfort seems fine. I feel better sitting "IN" the seat now. Their tank guard is a bit bigger than necessary, but not a big deal if I keep the wax off it. I also think they should know better and put a little glue on the edges of the pan to keep the thin foam from pulling up from the edge as they stretch the cover on. You'd get a smoother edge that way, with no wrinkling under the cover. But what do I know? Just glad it's over.

I think it looks good...it feels okay then?I went with a connie seat I shaved myself down an inch or so...turned out really well...used the factory cover for it....on my 07....getting these seats right are a pain....but after working with two other connie seats I had...I finally got it right...sorry for your hassle....hard to get things straight over the phone when it comes to something like this....

Would you do business with them again?

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My experience was about the same as Keith's, or a bit worse...
The last thing I told them after almost 3 months was throw the POS in the garbage and give me a refund.
Oddly, the seat showed up 3 days later...lol
I'd post pics but I don't think you'd want to see the seat without a cover.
I ripped the SOB off to reshape the foam and when it goes back together, at least I'll be sure to have the welt against the cowl where it was supposed to be instead of 1/4" away from it.
Yeah, fun!
Hank

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What a hassle !!!

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Thanks for the replies.
The seat feels pretty good. I don't go on many longer rides that often, but I may go through Death Valley again this year, so I hope it'll feel allright.

Would you do business with them again?

Interesting question. I know some would say I'm a fool if I said yes, because it really was difficult. I stressed a lot over it.
I'd like to have the seat done on my pristine '79 GS1000E. I even mentioned it to Richard Young during a "thank you" call. He said he'd look forward to it and to ask for him personally, which I would do. That's the only way I'd deal with Sargent's again, as far as customizing a seat. I have to remind myself though; do I really have the super-cell foam or what? Looking back, I still find everything hard to believe. Also, I'm not alone here. Hank went through worse than me. I doubt Bob Livingston had it in for me. We never argued on the phone or anything. Only one time he did say something smart-ass, regarding the stitching. He said it "nice" if you know what I mean, but still... When I gave up on the stitching alltogether, he said "first you want stitching, then you want none; what do you want, a half-stitch?". Like with everything else, he never listened to what was said to him. He told me "he'd done 200 seats without a problem". I don't believe it.
It does appear they bill you automatically for super-cell foam. There's also real strong evidence they don't intend to install it. Just wrong.
One other thing I did was to e-mail Richard Young since he sent an e-mail asking "how was the seat"?
I sent a reply but he probably won't see it until tomorrow. I said the seat is fine and thanked him. But I also couldn't stop myself from telling him I would send another e-mail regarding my experience with Sargent's. It would be a long message and he could delete it if he wanted.
I just said what I felt, but stayed civil when talking about Bob. I consider Richard Young the exact opposite of Bob Livingston. I told him what I'd do in this case. I don't know how Richard gets along with Bob but I put it all out there, both good and bad. I'm guessing he'll e-mail me back. As for if I'll do business with them again, a lot depends on the message he sends back.

I ordered my version of the Seat from Hell from Paul Jones. Paul trained Bob Livingston, or so I was told.
Keith, ask Richard if he'd like to speak to another dis-satisfied customer and if he says yes, feel free to give
him my contact information. I'd enjoy talking to him...lol

"Would I do business with them again?"
It's going to take someone way up the food chain to make some major corrections before I'd send another seat to them.

"He'd done 200 seats without a problem."
I wouldn't believe that for a second.
Here's 2 guys on the same forum with the same story in the same approximate time frame...draw your own conclusions.

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I had them do a custom seat once. It was ok. I rode there though and waited all day while they did it. Overall it was alright. I ended up with a Corbin and I love it. It does make you sit back a bit but on long stretches it fits your arse perfect and sitting up close isn't bad. I may have them reshape the front of the seat eventually to allow me to be a touch closer but overall it's great. I can ride all day with no butt discomfort at all. The stock seat just killed me after 45 minutes. Hers the Corbin on my new '13

I had them do a custom seat once. It was ok. I rode there though and waited all day while they did it. Overall it was alright. I ended up with a Corbin and I love it. It does make you sit back a bit but on long stretches it fits your arse perfect and sitting up close isn't bad. I may have them reshape the front of the seat eventually to allow me to be a touch closer but overall it's great. I can ride all day with no butt discomfort at all. The stock seat just killed me after 45 minutes. Hers the Corbin on my new '13

I've had 6 different seats from sargents. The best seat out there for bikes bar none. Great people to deal with. I would like to hear the other side of the story.

I've had 6 different seats from sargents. The best seat out there for bikes bar none. Great people to deal with. I would like to hear the other side of the story.

Are we talking about the same outfit?

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scottfarm, if you read the first post from KAK and the 5th post from me (HanksZX), you already did hear the other side of the story. I just got my seat back from Tom at Classic Auto Upholstery who helped me out as a favor, and it finally is what it should have been to begin with; 5 months, 3 trips back and forth to Florida, and $400.00 later.
My experience with Sargent sucked....is that clear enough?

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My experience with them was just OK but the seat was nothing to write home about. There is another guy I see a lot and he has a Sargent on his 14, he sat on my Corbin and was like "WOW this is awesome". Everyone has a different but, I get that but there seats really are just average. I would say just a notch above stock. Which of course is always better because stock sucks lol.

Phantom, I have a Corbin too but the pocket sets me back to far. That's why I went this route. I would have sent it back to Corbin but their customer service seems worse than Sargent. My Corbin would be perfect for someone taller than I and at 5'8", that's just about everyone...lol. Corbin's listed for sale BTW.
As far as comfort of the Sargent, dunno yet...It's spent more time in Florida and in trucks than it has on the bike.

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I have a Sargent with the storage pod on my ZX-14. The cover of the storage pod is color matched to the bike and mine did not match well. They treated me right, corrected the problem in a timely manner. I also bought a Sargent seat for a previous bike and it worked fine, this one was an off the shelf, no mods seat from their catalogue. Perhaps they are not as good at special orders?

Yeah I'm considering modding my Corbin to fix the "pocket" issue but so far it's been so good and no butt soreness I'm afraid to mess with it lol.

I've had 6 different seats from sargents. The best seat out there for bikes bar none. Great people to deal with. I would like to hear the other side of the story.

If you've "had 6 different seats" from Sargent's, it sounds like you bought their mass-produced seats? If so, I did mention in my story that I speak only for their custom seat work. They say it's the "cornerstone of their business".
I also mentioned how the two people I dealt with couldn't be more different. One (Bob Livingston) was nothing but a bullshit artist and cheats the customer, period. The other, Richard Young, General Manager, went well out of his way to work with me. However, even now I'm not sure I got the super-cell foam I paid for, which also involved Richard. All I can say is the seat turned out OK due to Richard's help. I did ask Richard for a picture of the foam re-work before covering it and that's when it was obvious I never got the super-cell foam I paid for two months earlier. I discussed it several times with Bob as progress was made on the seat, so I know this was no mistake. He deliberately left out the foam thinking I'll never know. As Hank will tell you, it's possible that this is normal practice from them.
But, as good as Richard was to work with, when I first discovered the missing foam I asked Richard where is the foam? Is it a different color? I only see stock Kawasaki foam in the picture. His answer was "now that you've seen and approved the re-shaping of the foam, we will now install the super-cell foam and finalize the shape as you requested." That makes zero sense...to shape the stock foam extensively, then install super cell foam and shape it AGAIN the exact same way! He obviously knew I was aware the foam was never installed, and side-stepped the question.
So, I said OK, but BEFORE covering it I want to see a picture of the AGAIN re-shaped foam. We had been e-mailing all morning and I know he saw that message. I just wanted to see the super cell foam. He said it was a different color. It would be easy to see in the picture I asked for. No message came. No picture. A couple hours later I sent one last e-mail and I said I was going to try calling. Before I could go to the phone the phone rang and it was Richard. I asked about the picture and he said the seat had just been covered. I couldn't believe it. I made it as clear as I could that I wanted to see the foam before covering it and it didn't happen.
That's why I have a doubt I got the foam I wanted. What do you think?
As for hearing their side of the story like you said, I sent a message to Richard because he asked "how was the seat". I told him it was fine and thanked him. I also said I was sending another e-mail and he could delete it if he didn't like it. It was mostly about Bob and how I felt this guy shouldn't be trusted and how someone like him wouldn't work for me. Richard never replied, which was a first. So I can only assume he's friends with Bob and isn't open to any criticism about him. I didn't rant, I just said I'd like an explanation of how he could make several mistakes. If not, then I said this Bob Livingston needs to "be watched". By getting no e-mail back I'm sure Richard took it the worst way and not the way I intended it to be, which is to put the customer first. I also said I was posting about my experience with Sargent's on a popular website and he could join in and give "his side of the story" as you say. He hasn't responded in that way either.
They may make good mass-produced seats. From what I'd read, I wanted to try one of those seats but I wanted to keep my cowl. That's not possible with their seats. So I figured they knew what they were doing if I wanted them to customize my stock seat. After a hell of a long time, I squeezed a decent seat out of them, but it was beyond ridiculous what I went through. I thought others should know.